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Smudger and Hiro's Winter Adventure
Winter had arrived on Tanishima. All of the engines big and small were working their hardest to get their passengers and goods through the icy wind and deep drifts of snow. All of the engines were very excited, as New Year's was nearly there. Every year at midnight, there would be a big celebration, and all of the engines would get to take part. Most importantly, one engine from each railway would be specially picked to pull their Controller to the celebration. But this year, the party would be extra special. A new station had been completed on the other side of the valley, resting at the bottom of the mountain. All three railways connected here, and the grand opening would be at midnight on New Year’s Day. All of the engines were on their best behaviour – nobody wanted to miss out on the festivities. On the evening before the party, the Little Controller came to see the engines. “Tomorrow,” he said grandly, “Smudger will be taking me to the party. Kudo,” he continued as he turned to the old engine, “are you sure you’re okay with us using Yume?” Kudo had never been separated from his faithful coach before, but he wanted to help make sure everything was special. “No, of course not, Sir,” he said with a smile. “Good then,” the Little Controller said. “You and Edward Mann will be handling the main passenger duties for the evening. Candy will follow you with her own train, and Lewis will be on hand to assist you if necessary.” Candy frowned. “Can’t he just stay in his shed?” she pouted. “I REALLY don’t like working with him.” “Sorry, Candy,” said the Little Controller. “As long as he’s here, we’re making him as useful as the rest of you. And no arguments,” he finished sternly, and Candy quickly shut her mouth. Smudger was hissing with excitement. “I’ve never pulled a special before,” he said with a grin. Edward Mann was concerned. “You should be careful out there,” he said. “There’s bound to be a blizzard tonight.” “It’ll be fine, don’t worry about me,” Smudger laughed bravely. “No snow is too much for me!” Meanwhile at the Main Station, the Big Controller was making preparations with his own engines. Naomi was chosen to pull the Big Controller to the party. She felt very grand. “Please, Sir,” Morning Light asked. “Will Takao be able to come to the party?” “Only by some miracle,” the Big Controller sighed. “All of you will be busy, and I can’t clear your schedules now, not unless it was a real emergency...” Just then, there was a whistle and a roar, and Hiro pulled into the station with his train. He was puffing and panting as he screeched to a stop. “Well flatten my funnel!” said Katsu in surprise. “Look who’s nearly fifteen minutes late!” “I’m sorry,” Hiro sighed as he caught his breath. “It’s the Mainland’s diesels, they…” “No excuses,” said the Big Controller crossly. “If this kind of tardiness keeps up, you might miss the party tomorrow. Or worse, the Mainland might decide to send you away! And we wouldn’t want that, would we?” Hiro frowned at the dreadful thought. “No, Sir,” he said grimly. “Not at all.” “Good then,” the Big Controller said. “There’s a lot of hard work to do first thing in the morning, so no dawdling – not from ANY of you,” he finished promptly, looking over at all of the engines as he walked away to his car. The other engines felt sorry for Hiro. “Don’t worry,” Misaki said. “You’ll be right on time and really reliable tomorrow. We’ll make sure of that.” “Besides,” said Naomi, “Ryu and Twelve will be there to help you. Nothing can go wrong, right?” “I hope not,” Hiro said with a weary smile. “Thank you all.” But that morning, the engines found that true to Edward Mann's word, a blizzard had swept the Island during the night. Engines from both the big and little railway were gathered at the Main Station, where the two Controllers explained the situation. “We’ll have to stop our party preparations for now,” said the Big Controller grimly, “and get the mountain villagers to shelter. Last night’s blizzard was bad, but it’ll be even worse tomorrow.” “How about we bring them down and use the new station as a shelter?” suggested Katsu. “That way, they can celebrate and have a warm place for the night.” “That wouldn’t be a bad idea,” said the Little Controller, “but that would mean sending engines up the Ice Line.” The engines shuddered. The Ice Line was a winding line leading into the mountains, built on iron bridges. It was built to run through the mountains, rather than along the coastline, in order to avoid gunfire from foreign battleships. But the line was so frigid and risky that almost no engine used the line anymore. The Big Controller talked the situation over with the Drivers, and made a few phone calls. “Here’s the plan,” he finally announced. “We’ll go up the mountain and collect the villagers, and bring them back down to the base. From there, the coaches will be arranged into separate trains, and from there brought to the new station. The Mainland has promised to help out, but we need to work quickly and efficiently if we want this done safely.” “Yes, Sir!” the big engines whistled as the hurried off to work. “And as for you all,” the Little Controller told his engines, “we’ll continue our operations as usual, but Smudger, if you’re needed to help out here, I want you to forget about the party and pitch in however you can. Do I make myself clear?” “Yes, Sir!” the little engines chorused. It wasn’t long before the rescue operation was underway. Naomi, Ryu, No. 12, and Misaki trekked across the iron bridges with their coaches, and gathered every passenger they could carry, and brought them down the mountain. The icy wind howled around their funnels as they worked. Ryu hissed fiercely as he stormed along the line. “This is lunacy!” he snorted as he pulled into the top station. Meanwhile, at the end of the line, Katsu arranged the coaches into long trains. From there, Morning Light and Hiro pulled them away to the new station. When they saw the other engines coming back from the mountain, they would whistle “Good luck!” Far off at the narrow gauge railway, the engines were fitted with snowplows and pulling trains of supplies and passengers to the new station. The valley line was cleared of snow, but the wind was picking up as the day grew longer, sometimes making bigger drifts of snow than before. Candy was miserable. As she wasn’t strong enough to push through the snow on her own, Lewis the military engine had to travel in front with his plow, and pushed the snow aside with relative ease. “I thought you’d need my help,” he chuckled. “Never send a toy train to do a real engine’s job, I always say.” This made Candy so red in the face she thought her boiler would burst! "Don't mind him," shivered her Driver, who was bundled up in warm jackets. "You're being a credit to the railway, and that's most important." As evening came, Smudger, with his snowplow fitted firmly on his bufferbeam, waited patiently at the platform with Yume. She looked remarkable in her traditional decorations. The Little Controller was talking on the phone. Smudger waited nervously. Finally, the Little Controller hung up. “We’ve got the okay,” he said with a smile. “They’ve just brought down the last of the villagers, so the party’s on. Let's get going!” Smudger was delighted. The Little Controller climbed into Yume and, when he was ready to go, he rang her bell long and loud. Smudger whistled in reply, and hurried away to the new station. But the journey was nowhere near as easy as they had hoped. The wind had begun to pick up. It howled as Smudger puffed through the valley. “It’ll b-b-b-be ov-v-ver s-s-s-soon,” he hissed through chattering teeth. But just up ahead was a large snowdrift, deeper than the rest. He charged bravely at it, but it was far too deep, and he simply couldn’t push through. “C-come on…” he shivered as he backed up to try again. But as he pushed at it again with no success, he felt the ground rumble beneath his wheels. He looked up briefly, but before he knew what was going on, he was buried from funnel to footplate in snow. Takao was lucky. As the work had lightened up, No. 12 was allowed to collect him from the museum and bring him to the new station. He was smiling until he saw Hiro, sad and alone at the end of the Ice Line, preparing to return back to the mainland. They stopped at a signal to talk to him. “You’re not coming?” he wheezed. “No,” said Hiro sadly. “They want me back at their own sheds tonight. I can’t stand to be there with their diesels…” Takao frowned. “Don’t feel down,” he said kindly. “Be thankful that you at least won’t be alone tonight.” Just then the signal dropped, and No. 12 puffed away with Takao in tow. Hiro sighed. “But I’d rather be with my friends…” he said quietly as he looked up at the starry sky. Just then, a workman ran up to Hiro’s cab and spoke urgently to his driver. “There’s another emergency,” he said grimly. “Smudger hasn’t arrived with Mr. Nakamura. Please, go to the valley line and see what’s wrong.” Hiro’s driver agreed, and they set off through the valley. As they headed along the line, Hiro looked down at the lower narrow gauge line, keeping an eye out for Smudger. The narrow gauge lines were covered in thick snow as far as the eye could see. Quite suddenly, they heard an unfamiliar sound echoing from below. “Hello?” shouted Hiro. “Is somebody there?” That was when his driver noticed a bell sticking out of a snowdrift, ringing loudly and frantically. “Oh! There they are!” he laughed. “Come on, Hiro, let’s get them out of there before they freeze!” They brought workmen and some cranes, and Smudger and Yume were soon dug free of the snow. Then, using the strong cranes, they were each lifted carefully onto the waiting flatbeds. Hiro tried not to laugh when he saw Smudger’s face, which was bluer than his paint. “I heard you could handle snow, Smudger!” he said with a smile. “Y-your s-snow….it f-f-fell onto m-my line…” shivered Smudger. “You’ll be just fine,” Hiro said. “Come on; let’s get to the station before we get frozen out here!” At the new station, all of the mountain villagers were enjoying hot drinks and chattering amongst themselves. The whole station was covered in traditional decorations. Daruma dolls were being given out and paper lanterns danced from the ceiling. Everything felt right to ring in the New Year. All of the engines, however, were worried. “Where’s Smudger?” said Kudo. “He should’ve been here by now.” “I warned him about the valley,” said Edward Mann grimly. “He’s probably buried somewhere, wheel deep in snow…” “He shouldn’t have been given the job in the first place,” Lewis said boldly. “Such a scruffy young private could never—” “Oh stick it down your funnel, why don’t you?” snapped Candy crossly. Lewis was so shocked that he immediately kept to himself! Ryu and No. 12 were waiting with the other engines. Naomi, who had brought the Big Controller safely, was surprised to see them. “Shouldn’t you be heading back with Hiro?” she said. “Yeah,” said Ryu, “but it’s no fun over there. I’d rather be here with nicer engines, you now?” No. 12 smiled and tooted in agreement. “We’ll probably get in trouble,” Ryu went on, “but it’s worth it for this party. Look at this place!” Just then, they heard a familiar whistle. The Stationmaster shouted and everybody cheered as Hiro pulled in, with Smudger and Yume behind on their flatbeds. The little tank engine smiled meekly at his friends. “Hey, you’re alive!” laughed Candy. “How are you feeling?” said Edward Mann kindly. Smudger shuddered as the station’s warmth spread over his cold boiler. “My fire's out and I'm covered in snow...but to be honest, I’ve never felt better!” he laughed. The Little Controller stepped out of Yume and shook the Big Controller’s hand. Using the dual gauge lines, they lowered Smudger and Yume back onto the rails, and they were brought over to the narrow gauge side of the station. As Smudger told his friends all about what happened, they noticed the Big Controller, Little Controller, and Representative step up to a stand to present a speech. “Hey, I know him!” Smudger yelped, but he was severely hushed! The Representative spoke on behalf of the Controllers. He thanked the Drivers, Fireman, and workmen who struggled all day to bring the villagers to the station. He then thanked the Mainland engines for their determination to help out. “Without these three,” he told the crowd, “nothing tonight would have been possible.” Cheers followed this. Then he cleared his throat. “Everybody, I’m very proud to say my family’s been a part of this for so long. For almost one hundred years, the Upper Valley Railway has worked to make life better for everybody on our beautiful island, and no matter what happens in the world, our railways will strive to serve you good people and prove that every engine, big and small, can be Really Useful.” Thunderous applause greeted these words. The engines whistled in delight. Smudger and Hiro smiled broadly at each other. As the cold wind blew outside, the villagers rang in the New Year with joy. But none of them were as happy as Smudger, Hiro, and all of the engines of Tanishima.